After Sony announced that "Shenmue" creator Yu Suzuki will launch a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the development of "Shenmue III," fans showed their outpouring support by helping the developer reach its target amount in less than a day.
The campaign, which was launched right after the Sony press conference at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2015 on June 15, was aiming to gather at least $2 million in 31 days to be able to bring the game to the PlayStation 4 and PC. According to Game Informer, "Shenmue III" reached $2,462,424 in just 13 hours. As of this writing, the crowdfunding campaign already reached more than $3,327,500 from almost 42,000 backers.
The first "Shenmue" game was released in 1999, and it was the very first video game that introduced the open world genre as well as the Quick-Time Event sequences. "Shenmue II" was released in 2001, and it was the first game in the series that was launched for Microsoft's Xbox console.
The popular open-world action-adventure series has been hailed as one of the "greatest video games of all time." However, it was discontinued because of its dismal sales record, and the game ended in chapter 11 instead of the initially planned 16 chapters. This left the story of Ryo Hazuki — his journey to make his father's murderer Lan Di pay for his crime and to unlock the mysteries surrounding the renowned stone mirror — unfinished.
Now that a third installment has enough funds for development, fans of the game can expect to see all chapters this time.
Suzuki seems to have big plans for the upcoming "Shenmue" installment, based on what he divulged in his recent interviews. In the latest issue of Weekly Famitsu spotted by Kotaku, the game creator said that he is considering using Unreal Engine 4 for the new game.
"I've been looking at a several different engines over the past three years for Shenmue III, and Unreal Engine 4's colors fit the color of the world I envision for Shenmue," Suzuki stated.
"Shenmue III" is expected to come out in December 2017, and Cory Marshall and Lislie Wilkerson, the original voice actors of the game's English version, expressed their interest in returning to the project if asked.
